AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 January 1924, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z- CABLE ASSOCIATION,

TAKEN DOWN

SYDNEY, Jan. 23

James Roberts was committed for trial on a charge of stealing, in company with two other unknown men, Cl 15 from Hector Ooodwin, of Christchurch, by means of a trick. Goodwin told the usual story of meeting the accused and a friend’s introduction of the three card trick, his lending £ls to one of the accused’s friends, and .£IOO to another, with a view io attempting to recoup small losses in previous failures to tuck the right card. Then there was a lengthy, fruitless wait outside a hotel, the whole of the debtors allegedly visiting the hank for money to repay.

STRIKE REPORT UNFOUNDED SYDNEY. Jan. 23

Mi Willi . Sor rotary ol the (dalniin i-i f ederation, deni. 1 , tha; there iany probability of a general strike. The malniinoi',. lie states, declare the report, that such an eventuality is ineijiTec] mi l len/Urig and nii-ehievioiis. i.t NATIC RUNS A.MtIK. (Received this day at 8 a.m.) .MELBOURNE, Jan. 23. A young man, believed to be till escaped lunatic, ran amok in the Botanic Gardens. Armed with a rille he commenced tiring indiscriminately and fatally shot three people, and seriously wounded two others. One is not expected to recover. Armed police are now searching, but so far the man has escaped capture. From meagre details supplied to the police, mainly from hysterical women, it appears that a little after six tonight. when many people were in tho gardens, a mail was seen stealing along helniid the trees with a rifle in his hands. The first victim was Mrs Ktrohoiker who was silting under a tree knitting, while her three children were playing nearby. The man stood behind the tree one hundred yards distant, carefully aimed and lirod, killing instantaneously. lie then shot .Mrs I’eiTv who was seated beneath a lice. The first shot, miisi have appealed to the lunatic to not have taken e fleet for he deliberately fired again. The next victim was John Moxhani who was seated with his wife drinking tea. Ilis wife heard the shot and saw her husband collapse. Sluing rille behind a tree a short distance turned find saw the man with a smokawny. She then jumped hack into the nearby shrubs and the man made olf in the direction of the exit of the gardens into the Domain. All the victims were shot at short range. The other bodies are lying ill file morgue awaiting identification. Armed mounted and fuot-police were searching to a late hour lint were unsuccessful.

FURTHER PARTICULARS. MELBOURNE, January 21. F. \Y. Mellvine. one of (lie victims v ho was fatally shot by the madman, came from Tooiak. He was aged Cm, and had only recently arrived from Ireland. Mabel I’ndlmry, aged thirty, a housemaid employed at Hawthorn, v. as also one of the victims. At first the sound of shots in the gardens excited little at ten! ion. as it: eus surmised t hat the gardeners were .shooting ai: leiTou I. hut alien a mall rushed about -h’t'liug “Spineoue is shot." a bne and rn a a-, i ;i>, 1 and the gardepei . at t "U'.ia i-f ami pnM'c I , 1.1 . ihl I 111, .] • he •as : ion .’•■ V -UP. U U ••’ ft" '••-iti on the cround .tn ‘-on’uW ’••• L:n ni- ; > u , hi!:!.:'. • \ litrlc further av. a man i, vomit 1 ax re !■ mg f.w do yn on tp apparent!', dead. Another ■ oivian. who v.rr: knitting when she v.ac nt 1 'Kke'l. !’iy Uv! v ith her work still in her Lami . Another was stretched on flic lawn. The head gardener. M" St. John, said he was in his backyard when he. heard the shots and lie guessed immedintelv that, something was wrong. He rushed to the vicinity whence the reports came and there ho was confronted with tlu> spectacle described. constable approached him, saying: “For Cud's sake get a gun. there’s a madman in the gardens. ’ Air St. .John secured a gnu and searched, with his son, all Hie shrubberies and undergrowth about tlm gardens, till midnight, hut they failed to locate Hie lunatie. who is -till at large.